


By Any Other Name

by RaeDMagdon



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Family, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-20
Updated: 2012-03-20
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:35:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/366014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaeDMagdon/pseuds/RaeDMagdon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a prompt on the Mass Kink thread. "Wrex telling his son Mordin and his daughter Shepard about their namesakes and how they cured the genophage." I expanded it to include some other scenes as well because the thought of Shepard being a popular baby name for just about every species amused me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By Any Other Name

"Shepard is a good name. The best name. A strong name."

Wrex knew that he really shouldn't play favorites with his children - but since he had hundreds, it wasn't exactly easy to keep up steady relationships with all of them. Some female krogan preferred it that way. They were used to centuries of raising children on their own without any help from their fathers. Wrex was trying hard to change attitudes like that, but it stood to reason that the children that he lived closest to, born to him by his favorite female, were special to him.

And so when his oldest son, his second of many children with Bakara after the Reaper invasion, asked him where his name came from, he treated the question as important.

"But it's not a krogan name," the child said.

"It's a krogan name now. Krogan names are strong, and Shepard was a strong human."

"I'm named after a human? But Brak said that humans are squishy weaklings..."

Wrex grunted. Brak, one of his many younger second cousins, was kind of an idiot. "You are named after the human that saved the galaxy. She faced down an army of Reapers and lived to tell the tale. For krogan, Shepard means Hero."

Young Shepard, wanting to hear more about his namesake, crawled up onto his father's lap and sat there. Wrex, uncomfortable with physical acts of affection, especially from children, nonetheless tolerated his son's presence. Being a father might not come naturally for him, but he put a lot of effort into it anyway. He patted the child's hump as the wide-set eyes gazed up into his.

"Shepard is the one that cured the genophage," Wrex said, continuing his story. "She delivered our people from the hell Tuchanka was. The salarians -" Wrex had to keep himself from laughing when young Shepard stuck out his tongue at the mention of the amphibious race "- made it so our people couldn't give birth anymore. For every one krogan child that lived, almost a thousand died."

"The salarians did that?" Shepard asked. "And a human fixed it?"

Wrex knew that his son didn't truly understand the horror that the genophage had been, how the krogan had nearly wiped themselves out of existence. It was a bloody and brutal part of their history, but he needed to know the story. Someday, when he was older, maybe...

"Not just a human. The salarians and the turians made the genophage long ago. But some of them helped to reverse it later."

"I thought you didn't like salarians..." said another voice, somewhat higher pitched but still deep for a child's. Shepard watched from his place on his father's lap as his sister, older only by a few seconds, entered the room. Envious of her brother's position, the girl hurried over to Wrex and tried to clamber onto his lap as well. The large krogan helped her up until she was comfortably settled on his other knee.

"You're named after a salarian, Mordin," Wrex reminded her. "True krogan know who their friends are. All species have their heroes, even the salarians. Mordin was the scientist that made the cure for the genophage."

"I'm named after a human," Shepard told his sister proudly. "She was a hero. She cured the genophage too."

Mordin rolled her eyes. "I know that, Varren-brain. You just don't listen when mother tells stories."

"I do too!" Shepard protested, but it wasn't exactly true. He usually fell asleep, or got distracted with play fighting. "Dad, how did Shepard and Mordin cure the genophage?"

"They used the Shroud," Wrex admitted. "What's left of it is a monument now. But there was a huge Reaper guarding it." He stretched out his hands wide, trying to demonstrate just how big it had been. "Taller than a thousand Krogan! Then your mother," he patted each child's head with a large hand, "came up with an idea. Shepard went into the underground ruins and lured Kalros, the Mother of All Thresher Maws, to the Reaper with the Maw Hammers."

"Did she fight to get there?"

"She killed so many Brutes and Cannibals that they had to make piles out of their corpses," Wrex said proudly. "She hit both hammers and Kalros erupted out of the ground. She crushed the Reaper into scrap metal in her coils."

Both children stared up at him, wide-eyed and astonished by the retelling of the tale. "All this really happened?"

"Yep." Wrex grinned. "On another day, remind me to tell you about the time Shepard and Uncle Grunt killed a Thresher Maw single-handed."

"If they were together, why was it single handed?" Mordin asked. Wrex frowned. Sometimes, his daughter was too smart for her own good, much like her namesake.

"Anyway, Mordin and Shepard went to the Shroud. There were still enemies everywhere, and the whole thing was about to explode. It was much taller then, like a sword sticking up into the sky. There was an elevator to the very top. Even though the place was on fire, Mordin took the cure up to the highest point and released the cure."

Mordin looked concerned. "And then he died?" she whispered, even though she already knew the answer.

"Hey, who's telling this story, you or me?" Wrex grunted. "He died a hero! He sacrificed his life to free all krogan from the genophage. Without him, neither of you would be here. And that's why you're named after him."

"Wait," Shepard said, "if Shepard was a female human and Mordin was a male salarian, why am I Shepard and Mordin... Mordin?"

Wrex rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "It was your mother's idea," he mumbled. "Go ask her."

. . .

"Dad!" Shepard said, tugging on his father's sleeve and holding a book in his right hand. "I just looked up my name. The dictionary says it's spelled wrong. What's a sheeps?"

Jacob's eyes went wide at the barrage of questions. "A 'sheep' is an animal from old Earth," he said, deciding to answer one question at a time. "A shepherd is someone that used to take care of them. They had wooly coats that were used to make clothes and fabric. But you're not named after that. You're named after a person."

"Shepard," the boy said excitedly, having heard about the war hero before. Jacob hadn't been thrilled with Brynn's choice of name, but he had to admit that the kid really identified with his old friend. "I can't believe you really met her."

"I didn't just meet with her. I flew with her to stop the Collectors. I helped her get ready to fight the final battle." For a time, Jacob had even wondered if there was an attraction between them, before realizing that it was one-sided and Shepard was completely stuck on some asari. He was just glad that Tali'Zorah and Garrus had taken care of that mission for him. Apparently, the yahg Liara had killed was enormous.

"They talk about her in school all the time," Shepard said. "Not everyone in my class believes me when I say that you knew her."

Jacob thought about it. Maybe it was time to ask his old friend a favor. The kid's birthday was coming up, and a holo from Shepard would probably make his year.

"Did she really punch Harbinger in the face, Dad?"

"Not exactly," Jacob laughed. He took the dictionary from his son and put it on the table. "Harbinger was a Reaper. They don't have faces. She did shoot at him a bunch of times, though. He used to take control of Collector bodies to make them stronger and try to kill her. It never worked."

In fact, he remembered Shepard being vaguely annoyed whenever Harbinger popped up for what felt like the hundredth time, especially when he took control of an enemy that was already almost dead.

"What did you do during the attack on the Collector Base, Dad?"

"Well, I was part of the second firefight team. Your Aunt Miranda led that one. I can barely remember how many Collectors we killed trying to hold our position while Shepard, Jack, and Garrus Vakarian helped Tali'Zorah get through the vents."

Shepard had heard this story before, but he never seemed to get tired of it. "But she almost died, right? Before Shepard could pull the last valve?"

Jacob nodded, not upset that his son was prompting him with details of the story. "She got out at the last minute. Harbinger showed up right near the last one, but she made it through."

"What happened then?"

"We found a hallway full of tubes." The ex-Cerberus operative shuddered at the memory. "It still gives me nightmares, Shepard. They were... processing the humans with them and turning them in to a giant human Reaper."

"The Reaper that Shepard fought!"

"Not yet. First we had to get there. Kasumi the thief took Dr. Chakwas and the crew back to the Normandy and the rest of us followed the tubes. Your Aunt Miranda and I went one way with our squad, and Shepard took Justicar Samara, Jack, and Garrus the other way."

Shepard frowned. "You're a biotic. Why didn't you go?"

Jacob remembered just how much energy Samara had expended at the very end to keep her barriers up, and how she had nearly died in the process. "Kid, my biotics are good. Hel- uh, heck... Your Aunt Miranda's biotics are good. But asari biotics are something else. Way more powerful than anything us humans could manage."

"Jack is a human..."

"Jack was experimented on. She didn't get those powers easily. I guess Shepard wanted her there in case Samara went down under the swarms."

"Couldn't she do it herself?"

Jacob thought about it. "Then who was going to shoot the Collectors? Someone had to take out Harbinger." _'Again,'_ he added in his thoughts. "Anyway, Justicar Samara made it to the very end of the tunnel. Her barriers were falling, but she pushed back the swarm and a dozen Collectors to get through the last door." The exhausted asari's biotics had been mostly useless during the following firefight, but she had picked up a gun and shot with the rest of them until she got her second wind.

"That's when they saw Aunt Miranda get shot!"

Shepard smiled sheepishly as his father stared down at him, arms folded, obviously not approving of such a loud voice indoors. "You don't have to sound so excited about it. She has a nasty scar from that through-and-through." Miranda could have easily afforded plastic surgery to fix the streaky mess that spread out across her lower back, but had decided to leave the scar as a memento. Secretly, Jacob thought she enjoyed looking not quite so perfect, even if that scar was usually covered by her clothes when she wore a jumpsuit. Sometimes, if she was in a shirt and pants, the hem rode up to reveal the scar.

"I think it's cool." Shepard usually asked to see the scar whenever Miranda dropped by for a visit on her runs to Earth. "Finish the story, Dad!'

"Well, with your Aunt Miranda injured, I helped take over the second team. Together, all of us held that position while Shepard took Garrus and Tali into the central chamber. And they found -"

"- a human Reaper! And it was huge! And she completely destroyed it with her Collector Beam! She shot it right in the eye, and then it tore off the platforms, and -"

Jacob laughed. "Why do I even bother telling you this story? You already know what happened."

"No! I want to hear the end... Tell me about the Illusive Man."

"The Illusive Man," _'that sonofabitch,'_ Jacob thought silently, "wanted to save the base for study. Shepard told him to take a short walk off a high platform. That's who you're named after, Shepard. The biggest dam - darn hero in the Galaxy."

"Dad, do you think I'll ever meet Shepard?" he asked.

Jacob smiled. "She's already met you when you were a baby, and again when you were a toddler. But maybe you'll meet her again." If everything went as planned, hopefully it would be sooner rather than later.

. . .

"Mom? Dad?" Benezia knocked on the door to her parents' bedroom cautiously, listening for any sounds that might mean she wasn't allowed in.

When her mother's sleepy voice told her to come in, Benezia opened the door. Her father was asleep in bed, her hair a complete mess against the pillow, sprawled out over most of the mattress. Liara was sitting at the small desk that she used when she didn't feel like going downstairs to her home office. She swiveled around in her chair, folding her legs and looking down at her small daughter. "Come here," she said, opening her arms. "What is it?"

"Why don't I have part of Dad's name?"

Liara pressed her lips together. It was a serious question, but one she had expected their daughter to ask eventually. Even though she was an asari, Benezia was very interested in her human roots as well, and she knew that human children usually carried on part of their father's name in some form or another.

"May I ask why you want to know?"

The young asari pouted. "I met a salarian boy today. He said his name was Shepard. After The Shepard. He said Dad helped his mother once on the Citadel. I told him that was my Dad, but he didn't believe me..."

_'Ah, so that's it,'_ Liara thought. "Did you tell him your House Name was T'Soni?"

"No..."

"Among most adults, that will be enough to prove your point." Like it or not, Liara's name had become irreversibly attached to Shepard's. Most citizens of the galaxy, particularly on Thessia, Earth, and Palaven, made the connection instantly. She wished that their names and their relationship hadn't become quite so high-profile, but it seemed that the public was fascinated by everything to do with Shepard, including her personal life. Sometimes, Liara wished that her relationship wasn't held up as one of the great love stories of a generation, especially since most people didn't know the half of it, but at least it would reassure her daughter.

"The salarian boy wasn't the only Shepard I met. I ran into a turian a few days ago. He said his name was Shepard, too! How many Shepards are there?"

That was a good question, Liara thought. Over the past several years, Shepard had topped the galactic baby name charts for all genders and almost every species.

"Too many," Liara said. "That's why we named you after my mother, Little Wing. We wouldn't want you getting confused with all those other Shepards, would we?"

"Am I the only Benezia?"

The asari matron shook her head. She had undergone her stage change over a century early, while she was pregnant with Benezia, and was one of the youngest matrons in recent memory. It had brought a few neurochemical changes, but had not dampened her passion for archaeology, Shepard, or the occasional adventure. Then again, being Shepard's bondmate meant a quiet life of peace wasn't likely to happen any time soon. Someone - the Alliance, the Council, various governments - always seemed to want something for her. Fortunately, her missions nowadays were much less likely to get her killed than the Reaper invasion.

"No. It's a moderately popular asari name. You know that we named you after my mother."

"But I want to be like Dad..."

Liara felt her heart clench at the simple, innocent statement. She suspected when Benezia was a hundred or so, she wouldn't think it was quite so important to be just like her parents. But for now, she almost wished Shepard was awake to hear how much their daughter admired her.

"You are very much like your father. That is why you were confined to your room for most of last week."

Benezia scowled at the reminder. "I get it. Don't take Dad's grenades into the back yard..."

"Don't take your father's grenades at all. You could have blown your hand off, or something much worse." Liara honestly didn't know why her bond mate even had grenades lying around in the weapons room, or how Benezia had snuck in there. That was another similarity she shared with her other parent. "Anyway, you are like your father because you are honest, brave, kind, and smart. I hope you remain all of those things when you grow up. That is the best way to be like Shepard."

"Will I save the galaxy when I grow up?" Benezia asked.

"I hope the galaxy doesn't need saving again any time soon," Liara said. "But if it needs saving, I know you'll do your best to help."

A loud snore interrupted their conversation. Shepard had turned partially onto her stomach, and was clutching Liara's pillow. The position change had disrupted her formerly quiet breathing, and Liara suspected she was probably drooling a little on the pillow. She stood up from her desk and shook her head.

"Come on, let's go downstairs. I'll make us something to eat."

Benezia followed her mother from the bedroom, heading down the stairs first as Liara paused for one last glance at Shepard. She was still snoring, her hair sticking up in awkward places, fully clothed in bed despite her exhaustion. Liara smiled. Even though Benezia didn't carry Shepard's name, Liara hoped she would grow up to be just like her father. Even when she looked so ridiculous.

There were lots of other Shepards running around the galaxy now, but her Shepard had no match in the entire universe.


End file.
